GMO Myths and Truths

3.4 Myth: EU research shows GM foods are safe
Truth: EU research shows evidence of harm from
GM foods
Myth at a glance
Research on GM foods commissioned by the European Union (EU) is often
claimed to conclude that GM foods are safe. This is a misrepresentation of this
research project, most of which was not designed to examine the safety of
specific GM foods.
Three animal feeding studies from the project that did examine the safety of a
GM food raise concerns, including differences in organ weights and immune
responses in the GM-fed animals. These findings should be followed up in
long-term studies.
An EU research project is often cited as providing evidence for GM crop and food safety.
Those who have cited the project in this way include:
➜➜
The GM industry lobby group ISAAA 1
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Jonathan Jones, a British Monsanto-connected scientist 2,3
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Nina Fedoroff, 4 former science and technology adviser to US secretary of state Hillary
Clinton
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Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for research, innovation and science. 5
However, the report based on this project, “A decade of EU-funded GMO research” 6 , presents
no data that could provide such evidence – for example, from long-term feeding studies in
animals.
Indeed, the project was not even designed to test the safety of any single GM food, but to
focus on “the development of safety assessment approaches”. 6 In fact, taxpayers would be
entitled to ask why the Commission spent 200 million Euros of public money 6 on a research
project that failed to address this most pressing of questions about GM foods.
In the SAFOTEST section of the report, which is dedicated to GM food safety, only five
published animal feeding studies are referenced. 7,8,9,10,11
Two of these studies were carried out with a GM rice expressing a protein known to be toxic
to mammals, in order to ascertain that the methodology used was sensitive enough to detect
toxicity of a comparable level. 7,8
None of the studies tested a commercialized GM food; none tested the GM food for longterm
effects beyond the medium-term period of 90 days; all found differences in the GM-fed
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